Bottling and Facilities

The olive, the sacred tree of the Greeks, has in recent years also made its appearance in the frontier village of Haropo. For years, the inhabitants of southern Greece claimed that olives could not be grown in the north, their aim being to maintain a monopoly. But they were proven wrong… The olive can be and is cultivated in northern Greece with great zeal, usually in semi-mountainous regions. In the submontane Haropo, olive cultivation and the villagers’ involvement in olive oil production have increased dramatically in the last ten years,
The varieties grown at Haropo are the Megaritiki, Amfissa, Kalamata, Halkidiki and Koroneiki olives.

Besides the exceptional olive oil that is has been producing for the last thirty years, the Grigoriadis family has also carried out an integrated production, storage and packaging plan for its olive products, with a focus on innovation and the promotion of Serrean olive oil’s distinguishing features.

It also offers its customers high quality services, through its use of modern bottling and packaging methods. In the village of Haropo, Serres, where the family has its home, a fully-equipped, forty square metre facility was built to house the main production unit, storage tanks and state-of-the-art bottling and labelling machinery.

A number of factors play an important role in determining Sirreon quality. These include the olive varieties used for the oil, which must be very carefully selected, and soil morphology, so that the olive tree can develop correctly. Fruit yield is satisfactory in almost all soils, as long as proper drainage is ensured, since olives are sensitive to too much moisture.
In mountain regions, as is the case of Sirreon, where the olive groves lie at altitudes of 142 and 250 metres, low temperatures are maintained throughout the fruit-forming period and there is also substantial air circulation, which have a very favourable impact on olive oil quality.
The varieties used for Sirreon olive oil are Halkidiki, Amfissa and Megaritiki. Based on the crops’ soil morphology, these varieties give our olive oil a fruity and spicy flavour and an incredible aroma that makes it stand out from the crowd. Organic products have 20 to 30% less water in their composition and a larger percentage of proteins, mineral salts, enzymes and vitamins. Furthermore, they also contain no preservatives, flavour enhancers, artificial colours or aromas. Our natural production methods lend our oils a much better flavour and aroma than their conventional counterparts have.

We begin to pick our olives in early November, so that our olive oil can be richer in nutrients (the precious polyphenols that are so good for the human body). The harvest is held at the perfect stage of olive maturity (that is, slightly early), when the fruit’s colour changes from yellowy green to purply black, which lends the oil an intense, fruity aroma. The olives are picked by hand or using mild mechanical methods to avoid injuring the trees and creating fungal growth.

After being harvested, the olives are put in plastic sacks (of at most forty kilograms each) with large holes so that air can easily pass through and the fruit is not squashed, until their transportation to the olive press.

The olive oil is extracted at the latest one day after the harvest. During this day, the olives are stored in a cool, well-ventilated area, so that the olive oil can have low acidity.